Indian tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain needs no introduction. A 2022 Kyoto Prize Laureate in Arts and Philosophy, he won three Grammy Awards this year for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album (As We Speak), Best Global Music Album (This Moment) and Best Global Music Performance (for the track Pashto from As We Speak). This took his total number of Grammy wins to five, equalling his compatriots, conductor Zubin Mehta and sitar master Ravi Shankar, with whom he first performed in the US in 1970. 

Four years later, Hussain formed the band Shakti with guitarist John McLaughlin, violinist L. Shankar and percussionist T.H. “Vikku” Vinayakram. He is also renowned for his collaborations with Van Morrison, Mickey Hart (the Grateful Dead/Dead & Company) alongside whom he recently performed at The Sphere in Las Vegas, and George Harrison. 

Speaking to Limelight, Hussain (now 72) says he owes a debt of gratitude to Harrison, not only for inviting him to play on the title track of his 1973 album Living in the Material World, but for the advice the former Beatle gave him.

Zakir Hussain

Zakir Hussain in Triveni. Photo supplied

“After we finished playing, I told George, ‘Mr. Harrison, I would really like to play the drums,’”...